Absolute Mastermind: (6.67Mb)
As promised, today’s games are puzzle games. Mastermind the game was an instant classic when it was first released in the 1970’s, and took the UK by storm; much like the Rubrik cube did a few years later. Today’s game has much more than the original game though, (apart from substantiality, lol); including the ability to play against another player. I was going to post a few word games as well, but after finding the second game below, I though that that would complement today’s game more so have decided to post the word games in a few weeks time when it’s my turn again.
Quote:
Absolute Mastermind v1.3 is a mind game with great feeling and fantastic 24 bit graphics, with wonderful color animations and music/sounds to make it a really enjoyable experience. The game has three difficulty levels to choose from and even a Mind Duel (2 player mode) function. The configuration window has dozens of options to alter the look/sound/feel of the game. It also supports skins, 2 skins comes with the game (metal & wood).
Reference: http://www.nonags.com/software.asp?id=1192 accessed Sept 08
Though the author’s home page is no longer active so I don’t know about being able to get new skins for the interface. The metallic skin is really nice in my opinion and gives the game a look of professionalism, that some commercial games lack.
Images:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=absolute+mastermind&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
Download Link:
http://web.telia.com/~u43509647/amind.html
Absolute Mastermind Manual:
There’s actually no downloadable document, so you’ll need to cut and paste it to a word or other document program.
http://web.telia.com/~u43509647/aminddoc.html
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Initially I was only going to post the one game today, then decided to add a couple of word games, but while searching for images and reviews for mastermind, I stumbled upon the following x-in-a-row game that was originally released in 1997, which intrigued me. It’s called GF1, which is a computerized form of the board game Gipf. Have you ever heard of it? …..me neither, but it looks intriguing, so much so that I’m tempted to get the actual board game for the family. Check it out by following the link below. The game allows you to play against another human or the computer, but beware; the computer is very hard, but not impossible to beat. The interface is clean and neat, and to move counters you use the mouse.
You can find detailed instructions on how to play the game within the unpacked files. There is no installer with the zip file so you’ll need to first create a folder which you can name Gipf or GF1, (or whatever you wish) then unpack the contents of the zip file you’ve downloaded from the link below, move the folder to wherever you install your games to, then create a shortcut to the desktop from the games executable. If you’re not sure how to create a shortcut, there’s a short tutorial elsewhere in the game discussion forums (at least page 8 or 9) Alternatively, for the first step you can create a new folder where you usually place your games and unpack the zip file to where you’ve placed the folder. Don’t forget to name the folder though.
GIPF was created as the first of a series of abstract strategy board games based on a hexagonal grid, designed by Kris Burm. The goal is to capture the opponent's pieces. The hexagonal board has 4 spaces on a side, and 2 or 3 vectors that lead to each of these edge spaces.
The game begins with three pieces from each player, placed on the corner spaces. The players then alternate moves of placing one of their pieces on a vector and bringing it into play by sliding it (and pushing any pieces along its line) onto the board. If, at any time, four or more pieces belonging to the same player form a line, those pieces and any others in their line are collected by that player. A player may return pieces removed from the board to play, but keeps any of the other player's pieces (a capture). The game ends when one player has run out of pieces to bring into play. That player.
Reference: http://everything2.com/title/GIPF accessed 2nd December 08
Images:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=gipf&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
Download Link:
http://www.gipf.com/gipf/webplay/webplay.html
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While searching for videos of the games above I came across a comedy sketch by the British duo Morcambe and Wise doing a sketch of Mastermind. I don’t know whether the world will appreciate the humor, but I just couldn’t resist adding it to the end of this post. Oh yeah, for middle aged wrestling fans listen out for the last few words spoken by Ernie, the point will probably be missed by the majority, basically Ernie callsMagnus Magnusson, Mr Macmanus and makes a reference to his wrestling abilities. McManus was one of the dirty men of British wrestling in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Both are sadly missed. For the video to run properly, you may need to put it on pause to allow the streaming to complete:
